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STEPHENVILLE – The Tarleton Texans wasted little time Wednesday night to hand the Eastern New Mexico Greyhounds their first Lone Star Conference South Division loss as Tarleton improved to 2-0 with a 76-36 victory in Wisdom Gym.

The Texans, who improved to 14-3 on the season, claimed their biggest South Division win since defeating the Greyhounds 83-43 on Feb. 27, 2007.

Wednesday's game was the first time since Feb. 22, 1997 that Tarleton has held a South Division opponent to below 40 points, and it comes at a time when the Texans are ranked No. 2 in the nation in field goal percentage defense and No. 5 in scoring defense.

“We are working extremely hard defensively,” said Tarleton head coach Lonn Reisman.  “We have put wrinkles into our man-to-man defense, and our kids have bought into and believe in it.  We were No. 1 in the nation in 2002-03 in field goal percentage defense in the nation, and this year we are No. 2.  This is the closet team I have had to that type of defensive output.”

Jeremiah Wilson recorded his seventh double-double on Wednesday with 10 points and 10 rebounds while Tarleton had five players in double figures.

“Jeremiah is playing hard and smart,” Reisman said.  “He is playing good team basketball.  He, Wale and Donta have to continue to bang the board for us. I give our kids credit for playing tremendous defense tonight.”

A free throw by Jimmie Marshall put the visitors ahead 35 seconds into the contest before Corin Henry gave the Texans the lead at 18:42 with a layup after a Wale Ogunoye steal.  Tyler Jefferson then had a tip-in for the Greyhounds before Ogunoye had a jumper and Effran Bryant hit two free throws for Tarleton to make it 6-3.  A three by Devon Hills put Tarleton up by six, but ENMU scored the next five. 

Donta Smith then found Darrion Washington for a three on the right side of the arc before ENMU's Reginald Nelson had a three and a steal with a fastbreak layup to tie the game at 12 with 12:55 on the clock.  Washington had a three, but Equs Darby had a three-point play the hard way on the opposite end to make it 15 all.

Hills had a layup, Jeremiah Wilson a free throw and Bryant a three to give the Texans a 21-15 advantage with 8:50 left in the first period.  The two teams traded baskets before Washington hit his third three of the game which was followed by a Henry layup.  Wilson then had a long jumper inside the arc with just under three minutes left in the period to give Tarleton a 30-17 lead.  Hills added to the lead with a scoop from underneath the basket before ENMU's Darby ended the Greyhounds' almost five-minute scoring drought.

Wilson Then hit a three from the corner for Tarleton before Hills did the same with 51 seconds left to give the game its halftime total with the Texans ahead 38-19.

Bryant had two threes and Henry had one to open the half and give Tarleton a 28-point lead with 17:03 on the clock.  At 16:22, Marshall had a free throw for the first points of the half for the Greyhounds.  Chris Harrell had an old-fashioned three-point play to lift the Texans to a 30-point lead (50-20) with 16:04 remaining in the contest. 

The two teams traded points with the Texans lead by 32 on two different occasions around the 14-minute mark.  A three by Harrell with 6:10 on the clock give the Texans a 34-point lead before Smith and Bryant had buckets.  Michael Brown had a layup for the visitors before a Smith three-point play the hard way at 3:56 made it 72-33.  Wilson added two free throws with three minutes left to give the Texan his seventh double-double of the year.

Tommy York had a three-point play with a layup and a free throw before Smith gave the game its final total of 76-36 with 30 ticks left in the period.

Tarleton was led by Bryant with 13 points while Washington (11), Henry (10), Hills (10) and Wilson also scored in double digits.  Smith had nine rebounds to finish second on the team. 

The Texans averaged .448 from the floor (26-58), .379 from the three-point arc (11-29) and .765 from the charity stripe (13-17).

The Greyhounds were led by Darby with 11 points and seven rebounds as the Texans outrebounded the visitors 40-22 and outscored them 24-6 in points off of turnovers.  Tarleton turned the ball over nine times while ENMU did so 16 times. 

ENMU averaged .326 from the field (14-43), .167 from the arc (2-12) and .545 from the line (6-11). 

Tarleton will return to action on Saturday, Jan. 23 at West Texas A&M.  Tip-off is set for 6 p.m. in Canyon.